Hopes for deal fade as nurses go back to the streets

KNH nurses protested outside the facility over lack by management to implement a previous return-to-work deal.[File-Standard]

The nationwide nurses’ strike remains unresolved despite a week of meetings between the union, the Council of Governors (CoG) and other government agencies, with the engagements failing to produce the breakthrough that had been expected.

The nurses have instead returned to the streets, with the two sides still divided over whether key issues in their Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) have already been agreed upon or remain subject to further negotiations.

The impasse comes a week after the Kenya National Union of Nurses and Midwives (KNUNM) expressed optimism that planned engagements between the CoG and the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) could help unlock the dispute and pave the way for nurses to return to work.

It was anticipated that the meetings would address outstanding issues, including implementation of the 2017 return-to-work agreement, the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), career progression and the transition of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) nurses to permanent and pensionable (PNP) terms.

But instead of a return-to-work deal, the engagements have exposed a disagreement over how far negotiations had gone and what should happen next.

KNUNM Deputy Secretary General Maurice Opetu says the union's negotiating team had already reached an agreed position with the CoG team on key components of the CBA and expected the process to move towards signing.

Opetu says he was surprised when the CoG sought to reopen negotiations instead of proceeding with the position reached by the negotiating teams.

“We did not agree to open another negotiation on top after several negotiations and reconciliation,” Opetu said.

Among the issues the union says had been agreed was an increase in the risk allowance from Sh3,850 to Sh10,000, alongside other allowances contained in the return-to-work agreement.

Opetu said the union's position was that the agreed formula should be adopted into the CBA rather than beginning another round of negotiations.

But CoG chairman Ahmed Abdullahi has a different account of where the process stands noting that the negotiations for the new CBA are ongoing and questioned why nurses remained on strike while the talks continued.

“Negotiations for the new CBA are ongoing, so we don’t know why they are on strike,” Abdullahi said.

The CoG maintains that governors have a team negotiating with the unions and that counties are implementing the existing CBA.